Wind

We have had a few traumatic days. Monday night, September 7th. Nate and I and the kids had just finished the main work on the mud room. We worked on it all weekend, and it's looking good. We went to a neighborhood meeting, and it's a good thing. Because we were notified of a wind storm that was coming. We came straight home and all worked together to get everything in the yard secured and put away. That night was crazy windy. At 3:30 AM Tuesday morning I noticed our bedroom window was cracked open, and stuck that way. I prayed we'd figure a way to shut it. The window surely would have blown off had we not been able to get it shut. Thank Heaven we did! I couldn't sleep after that. The wind was blowing SO hard, I was nervous to stand by any of the windows because the wind was shaking the house. I was nervous enough that I went down to the basement and prepared beds for everyone, then went to each of the children's bedrooms, woke them up, and we all went to the basement to sleep. I felt much safer down there, but didn't really get much sleep. The power flickered off and on during the night, but we finally lost it for good for around 10 AM Tuesday. School was initially put on a 2 hour late start, and then cancelled altogether. The rest is sort of a blur honestly. 

The winds died down a little that morning, but we'd heard it was going to get really bad again. And it did. Winds of 99 miles per hour were recorded in Farmington. I'm not sure when, but at some point the big tree on the northeast corner of the property blew onto the garage. Nate and our new neighbor John Baker (Poor Bakers literally are just moving in.) braved the wind in bike helmets to cut some of the tree off the house to prevent more damage. I was scared for them. The power was out all day. That evening things calmed down and we were able to go outside, knowing that things were supposed to get bad again Tuesday night. We've lost several trees including Lilla's favorite pink poof tree. Dad was able to bring us Uncle Ace's generator, so we could at least keep the fridges going and have a little light and some Wifi. Nate ran to Home Depot and Target. Nate said the stores were like scenes from Stranger Things. It being pretty dark and the generator lights flickering. He said he had to use his phone light to pick out the M&Ms -ha! Nate and Dad helped stabilize the chimney that was blown off the house and we braced for round 2.

Luckily Round 2 was not as bad as Round 1. Still super windy, but I was able to get some sleep. We even slept upstairs in our own beds. School was cancelled Wednesday. Due to power outage and debris. There were 180,000 people without power. I believe Farmington and Centerville seemed to receive the brunt of the storm (Centerville even worse than Farmington I've heard), though I know there was destruction all over the Wasatch front. And still, some people today (FRIDAY!) without power. They called on crews from other states to come help get it restored.

Anyway. All day Wednesday we worked on cleaning up our yard and the Baker's yard. Dad was up again to help, Nanny brought Ila and Pearl and they helped. It was a huge mess. And there is still a lot of cleaning up todo. We picked up so many branches, some garbage, a bunch of apples, and probably 100 pounds of plums that had fallen from our beautiful trees. The sound of chainsaws was everywhere, even as I type this I can hear 2! Both neighbors sawing away at fallen trees. We worked hard all day. My watch recorded 23,321 steps. :) Just under 10 miles of walking and working. We noticed the power was back on about Noon on Wednesday! Yay!

Thursday the kids finally were able to back to school. I drove around our little town with Kit in the back seat taking pictures and feeling a little traumatized.

Old Famington City Hall.

Though there's so much destruction and sadness, through it all there is always the the awesomeness that comes from working through it and helping each other out--Coming together as families and communities. 

I like to call this the Hurricane Hibiscus. I brought this pot in before the storm and the Hibiscus finally was warm enough to bloom.